


Meet You at the Museum

by Odae



Series: the teacher and the scientist [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Astrophysicist Sokka, Bisexual Sokka (Avatar), Friends to Lovers, Gay Zuko (Avatar), M/M, Minor Aang/Katara, Modern AU, OB/GYN Katara, Pining, brief Bumi II, teacher!Zuko
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25043365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Odae/pseuds/Odae
Summary: They stand quietly for a while before Sokka clears his throat.“So, you’re a teacher,” he says.Zuko nods. He worries about what’s going to come out of Sokka’s mouth next; most people he’s met since becoming a teacher ask him how he can stand the early mornings and spending all day with small children. It often makes him defensive when discussing the job he loves.“That must be fun,” Sokka says instead.The statement is simple and earnest, and it catches Zuko off guard.“It is,” he replies with a soft smile.Zuko is an elementary school teacher taking his class on a field trip, and he's about to meet the tour guide of his dreams.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: the teacher and the scientist [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1829686
Comments: 198
Kudos: 1618





	1. Chapter 1

One would think that after years of herding rows of small children through school hallways, Zuko would have an easy time of getting his class through a museum. But one would be wrong. 

Ba Sing Se’s Natural History Museum is actually a renovated palace from the Emerald Dynasty that sits very close to the campus of the city’s prestigious university. As a result, it attracts locals and tourists alike, from students and researchers connected to the university to appreciators of ancient architecture, and many, many primary school classes. Zuko’s horde just happens to be one of them. And though the corridors are wide, and the receiving-rooms-turned-exhibitions immense, he struggles to keep his young pupils in line amongst the throng of visitors. 

“Please, Lee, stay with your buddy,” he calls as they maneuver past the desert exhibit, and, “Yes, Meng, you can hold my hand,” he says to a little girl with unruly pigtails once they’ve made it into the eastern wing, and, “Joon, please stop climbing the pillar.  _ Now _ .” 

If this field trip weren’t free, Zuko would think he’s made a terrible mistake in agreeing to tote all of his students all the way from their school in Ba Sing Se’s Lower Ring to the Middle Ring where the museum lies. When they started their science unit on the solar system, one of his students’ parents offered to call in a favor with a brother who was a researcher at one of the university’s labs, and before he knew it, Zuko was planning a field trip for a private tour of the museum’s center for Earth and space from a premier astrophysicist, who also just so happened to be his student’s uncle. 

The same student walks up to him just as they reach the doors to the center, a bouncing blur of dark brown hair and light blue eyes tugging on Zuko’s elbow while Zuko tries to conduct a headcount.

“Teacher Zuko, Teacher Zuko, are we gonna see my uncle now? Teacher Zuko?”

“Just a second, Bumi,” Zuko says patiently, laying his hand on the little boy’s shoulder as he continues counting the wriggling bodies in front of him. Fifteen six-year-olds have made it through the museum with him, just as expected, and he’s about to let out a sigh of relief when he feels Bumi suddenly tear away from under his hand. 

“Bumi!” 

He can’t very well abandon the other fourteen students, so he scrambles to keep his eyes on the little boy as he sprints across the courtyard to leap into the arms of a man Zuko can only assume is his uncle. Zuko hears Bumi giggle, and then sees him point toward his class, and the two, with Bumi slung easily on his uncle’s hip , begin walking toward Zuko and his brood. 

When Bumi’s mother, Katara, mentioned her older brother, who was now—against all odds, she said dryly—a tenured professor and widely respected astrophysicist at Ba Sing Se University, Zuko pictured a grizzled, middle-aged man; or a deeply academic type, down to the tweed blazer and bowtie he’s seen on science shows on television; or perhaps someone scrawny, wearing wide frame glasses and a lab coat. Just someone whose outer appearance would indicate a great intellect within.

The man approaching him does not look like that. There’s a notable resemblance between him and Bumi, with his dark skin, his dark hair pulled back into a short wolftail, and his bright blue eyes. But the most striking thing about his appearance is how tall and broad and  _ young _ he looks. There’s not a wrinkle to mar the smooth planes of his face, from his high cheekbones to his strong chin. The cling of his sleeves betrays the tight muscle of his arms, the gleam in his eyes is pure youthful cockiness, and his white sneakers are a little scuffed on the toes. 

_ Stupid _ , Zuko thinks. Of course he’s young. Bumi’s parents, Aang and Katara, are the youngest in the class, each about a couple of years younger than Zuko. It makes sense Katara’s older brother would be about his own age. 

“I’m Sokka,” the man says once he reaches Zuko, holding out his free hand to shake. He smiles an easy smile that immediately disarms Zuko. 

“Thanks for coming to talk to the class. I’m Bumi’s teacher, Zuko,” he replies, smiling back, albeit a little awkwardly. 

“Oh, I know who you are,” Sokka says, leaning back and bouncing Bumi once on his arm. “We hear a lot about Teacher Zuko at home, don’t we, buddy?” Bumi nods quickly, unashamed. “You’re  kind of  his favorite,” Sokka says, turning back to Zuko. He puffs out his chest. “After me, of course.”

Zuko feels himself redden, but whether it’s from the compliment or the close gaze of this unexpectedly attractive young man, he really cannot tell. “I guess I’m in good company, then,” he says when he sees the adoring look Bumi gives his uncle. Sokka’s grin widens in return. 

“This is our class,” Zuko says, the pride clear in his voice. He faces the collection of small children, some still holding hands with their buddies, some looking up at him with blank stares, others letting their gazes fall on far away parts of the atrium. “We’re very excited to learn from Dr. Sokka today, aren’t we?” The gentle tone is enough to bring all of the children’s focus back to him. “So we’re going to use our eyes and ears to listen carefully to what he says.” The children nod. “And what do we do if we have questions?”

“Raise our hands!” the children cheer, a few even taking it upon themselves to demonstrate. 

“Nice job,” Zuko says warmly. He nods at Sokka; the kids are ready. 

Sokka puts Bumi down to join his classmates and then glances at his watch. “All right, we’ve got fifty-three minutes before we have to go to the planetarium,” he says enthusiastically, rubbing his hands together. “Kids, welcome to the Ba Sing Se Space and Cosmos Center!” His arm rises dramatically to point around the atrium. “Some might say it’s —” Sokka pauses dramatically, desperately trying not to laugh, and Zuko waits— “ out of this world!”

Only Bumi laughs uproariously. His little guffaws ring out through the otherwise quiet atrium. 

Sokka wipes a tear from his eye as he makes it through the dregs of his own laughter. “Tough crowd,” he says to Zuko, sounding a little crestfallen. 

Zuko glances at his collection of six-year-olds, so sober now compared to when they were trading knock-knock jokes on the bus. “They’ll warm up,” he says encouragingly. 

Sokka nods and returns his attention to the class. “Okay, my name is Dr. Sokka, it’s pronounced with an ‘Okka,’” he starts, “and I’m a professor of astrophysical sciences at Ba Sing Se University, where I mostly study supernova theory. Which means,” he says, starting to grin again, “I figure out how stars explode.”

“Explode?” one student echoes, and the class begins to whisper amongst themselves. With a quick clearing of Zuko’s throat, however, they quiet once more. 

“Explode,” Sokka says once more. Then, offhandedly, he adds, “Oh, and I’m Bumi’s uncle.” He points out the little boy in question, beaming proudly and nodding at his classmates, and the class loses their collective minds. 

“Uncle?” one yells. 

“Bumi?” cries another.

“My Uncle Mushi lives in Chin City, can we go see him?” 

Suddenly Zuko must spend the next several minutes calming his students back down. The sudden uproar dies as they respond to his simple instructions and serious tone, and their open faces tilt toward him to reveal an overwhelming eagerness to please. The measured praise and affirmations he gives the children elicit pleased reactions as they once more form an ordered crowd around Sokka.

“Sorry,” Sokka whispers guiltily to Zuko, who stands beside him holding two students’ hands and cajoling a third to  _ please _ use her indoor voice. 

Zuko gives him a wry smile. “They’re little kids; they have a lot of energy. It happens,” he says simply.

Before the students can grow wiggly again, Sokka runs through a quick introduction to the center, and they are finally inside, facing a model of the solar system taller than most of the students. Sokka gives a quick tour of each of the planets, encouraging the students to hop between orbital rings as they travel outward from the sun. Zuko holds Meng’s hand once again as they jump between rings, catching Sokka’s eye and earning a wide grin for his efforts. He smiles bashfully in return and keeps his focus on Meng. 

Once they get to the end of the tour, Zuko hands out coloring-in worksheets, and the kids run off in pairs as he calls, “If you have any questions, come ask Dr. Sokka!” The two men end up standing above Earth, watching their small charges disperse into the solar system around them. 

They stand quietly for a while before Sokka clears his throat. 

“So, you’re a teacher,” he says. 

Zuko nods. He worries about what’s going to come out of Sokka’s mouth next; most people he’s met since becoming a teacher ask him how he can stand the early mornings and spending all day with small children. It often makes him defensive when discussing the job he loves.

“That must be fun,” Sokka says instead. 

The statement is simple and earnest, and it catches Zuko off guard.

“It is,” he replies with a soft smile. “I’m lucky I always get good kids.”

“Like Bumi?” Sokka asks jokingly.

“Especially Bumi,” Zuko says sincerely. They find the little boy standing by Mars, pointing between the planet and the worksheet of the girl next to him, clearly in the middle of explaining something. “He’s talented and everything, but he’s also just a really good kid.”

Sokka looks pleased, but he still teases, “You’re not just saying this because I’m his uncle, right? My sister isn’t here, so you can tell the truth.” He puts on his best disciplinarian face. “If he’s being a nuisance, I’m not afraid to straighten him out.” 

“‘A nuisance?’” Zuko echoes, looking alarmed. He shakes his head. “Of course not.”

Sokka laughs. “I thought teachers weren’t supposed to have favorites,” he continues ribbing.

“I never said I did!” Zuko says a little indignantly. He crosses his arms and watches as Bumi picks up a pencil and returns it to his classmate. “But if I had to pick one,” Zuko says quietly, smiling slyly, “yeah, it’d be Bumi.”

Sokka pumps his fist in the air. “All right!” he whoops. “That’s my boy!”

A few of the students look over at the commotion, and though he’s laughing, Zuko puts his hand on Sokka’s arm. “Shh, Sokka.”

Sokka quiets, but he continues grinning. “Don’t worry, Zuko, your secret’s safe with me.”

Zuko pulls his hand back and looks back at his students, a small smile still painted on his lips. He feels Sokka’s eyes on his face, and he grows creepingly more conscious of the scar over his left eye. It’s one of the many reasons he likes working with kids. Instead of avoiding it, his students usually stare open-mouthed at the fierce mark on the first day of school. But once one child asks what happened to him, and he explains that someone hurt him a long time ago, and that no, it doesn’t hurt anymore, the class usually forgets about it by lunchtime, and the rest of the year carries on with normal, direct eye contact and a much easier time for Zuko. 

When he looks back up at Sokka, blue eyes stare directly into his amber. 

“Uh, what about you?” Zuko asks in a rush. “As a professor you teach, too, right?” As soon as he asks, it strikes him as an extraordinarily stupid question.

But Sokka doesn’t seem to think so. “Yeah, you know, I give a lecture or two a couple times a week,” he says, shrugging in mock modesty. 

“And you like it?”

“I do,” Sokka says genuinely. “I mean, I get paid to research space, and then I get paid more to tell other people about it. What’s not to like?” He sighs exaggeratedly. “Besides intro classes.”

Zuko turns vaguely amused as he asks, “What’s wrong with intro classes?”

“Nothing,” Sokka says sarcastically, “if you like lecturing to a bunch of eighteen-year-olds who spend the whole time on their phones.” He gestures to the students still running around them. “I’d take these guys over Astro 101 any day.”

Zuko thinks this over. “We  _ are _ always looking for volunteers to help out in class,” he finally says. He meets Sokka’s look with a shrug. “Usually they’re parents, but I’m sure we could make an exception. If you’re ever free.”

“No kidding,” Sokka says thoughtfully. He snickers. “Aang must be all over that.”

Zuko gives a short laugh. “Yeah, he comes in pretty much every week.”

Sokka nods and looks back at the kids. “Okay, yeah. I’d love it,” he says with a grin. They stand for a while above Earth still in companionable silence, until Sokka asks, “Did you always want to do it?”

Zuko looks up sharply. “What?”

“Teach primary school?” 

Zuko shakes his head with a small smile. “No,” he says, as though he can’t quite believe where he’s ended up. “But it’s kind of a long story.”

“We have —” Sokka glances at his watch— “seventeen minutes until the planetarium.”

Zuko’s head tilts in resignation. “All right,” he agrees. “The short version is I was going into my last year of university with no idea what to do with my Literature and theater degrees. But, uh, I didn’t want to spend another summer working in my uncle’s tea shop. So I worked as a teacher’s assistant in the Lower Ring instead.” 

“And you liked it?”

Zuko smiles. “Yeah.” His hands are in his pockets, and he scuffs the toe of his boot into the ground. “I loved it.” His brow furrows before he looks up at Sokka again. “It helps that I moved to the Lower Ring with my uncle when I was sixteen. I did my last couple of years of secondary school there. And those teachers helped me get into the university. It, uh, I guess it feels like the right thing to do to honor that and teach kids in the same place.” 

Sokka lets out a slow exhale, his eyebrows raised high on his forehead. “That is,” he begins slowly, “a  _ way  _ better reason than I expected.”

Zuko looks at him with his own brow raised. “What else could you have expected?”

“I don’t know.” Sokka gives an exaggerated shrug. “That you like kids?” He throws a hand out in front of him in exasperation. “But you had to go and make it  _ honorable _ .”

“Not really,” Zuko says humbly. “But what about you? You must have had a reason to go into astrophysics.”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Sokka says with a wave of his hand. “My dad used to take me stargazing.” He points to the bottom of the globe in front of them. “You see  _ lots _ of stars in the South Pole. But you can’t see the moon half of the time, and it’s usually just a crescent. I didn’t think I was missing anything because of the stars. But then we took a trip to the North Pole,” he continues, his finger trailing up to the globe’s top, “and I saw it. The full moon.” He points to the moon figure positioned right by the globe, his eyes wide with wonder. Zuko thinks he even looks a bit teary. “And it was  _ beautiful _ .” Sokka grins at Zuko. “You could say the moon was my first love.”

Sokka seems so genuine that Zuko has no choice but to take him seriously. He nods gravely, as if he understands Sokka’s infatuation with the celestial object. “And that was it?”

“That was it,” Sokka says wistfully. “The day I gave my heart to space and science.” 

The two stand and survey the solar system model once more. Zuko eyes the white globe meant to be the moon. Sokka checks his watch. 

“Oh, no, Zuko, we gotta get to the planetarium.”

“What? Already?”

When Sokka looks up, his eyes are wide with urgency. “We have eight minutes.”

Zuko begins calling the children toward him. “Where is it?” he asks Sokka. 

Sokka points to an entrance not even thirty feet away. “Just there.”

Zuko vaguely thinks they likely don’t need all that much time to get the children together, but he follows Sokka’s lead. Soon enough, he has two lines of students standing side-by-side in front of him, and they begin the walk toward the planetarium, largely uninterrupted but for one student named Pipsqueak asking every few seconds for a snack.

“We’ll have a snack as soon as we get back to school,” Zuko promises, and he starts a headcount as the children file past him into the planetarium and toward their seats. His count comes out to only fourteen.

A little girl named Luli stands quietly near the entrance, tugging on one of her braids nervously. She looks down at the floor when Zuko comes to kneel next to her. 

“Luli, don’t you want to go see the show?” he asks. 

Luli shakes her head and keeps staring at the floor. 

“Why not?” he probes gently. 

Luli looks up at him with wide eyes and grabs his sleeve. “It’s so dark,” she says quietly, pointing at the black hole left by the open door.

“It is,” Zuko agrees, “but it’ll only be dark for a minute before the show starts. Are you sure you don’t want to go in?”

Luli nods her head determinedly. 

Sokka comes up from behind Zuko then and crouches down next to him. “What’s going on? We have three minutes till start time.”

“I don’t think Luli’s going to go in,” Zuko explains. “If you don’t mind keeping an eye on the kids, I can stay out here with her.”

“What? No, you can’t not watch the show! It’s the best part of the whole center,” Sokka insists. He turns to Luli, and his tone softens as he asks, “Don’t you want to see the stars?”

Luli shakes her head again. “It’s so dark,” she says again. 

Sokka nods thoughtfully, scanning the entrance to the planetarium before turning back to Luli. Suddenly, his face lights up. “Luli,” he says excitedly, “do you like badger-moles?”

The little girl’s demeanor immediately brightens, and she points to the cartoon badger-mole printed on her shirt. “They’re my favorite,” she replies. 

Sokka gives Zuko a winning smile. “Have you heard of Tuyanjing?” he asks Luli. “The badger-mole that lives in the sky?”

Luli shakes her head, and Zuko feels her grip on his sleeve get tighter as she stares at Sokka in fascination. 

“On clear nights you can see her up in the stars,” Sokka explains. “She’s the biggest of all the constellations!”

“Wow,” Luli says in wonder. She looks to Zuko for confirmation, and he nods once.

“They talk a lot about Tuyanjing in the show,” Sokka continues. He raises his arms in mock-defeat and bows his head. “But, hey, I understand. It can be scary in the dark. If you want to stay out here, be my guest.”

“No!” Luli cries. “I want to see Tuyanjing.” She suddenly turns shy once again as she faces the entrance. She looks back at Zuko. “Um, if — can you sit with me, Teacher Zuko?”

Zuko smiles at Sokka’s excited thumbs-up as he replies, “Of course.” And the three finally make their way into the planetarium.

Sokka’s right, of course; the planetarium is the best part of the space center. With little Luli still holding tightly to his arm, Zuko gets to watch several years of night sky above him, learning about each of the constellations he’s taken for granted, and hearing the histories of travelers, from the Water Tribe to the Fire Nation, who used the stars for navigation. But if he’s being honest, he’s also fairly distracted. Because at the other end of the row of seats is Sokka, right next to Bumi, staring up at the dome of the planetarium with such genuine fascination and clear adoration for the subject that it’s difficult for Zuko to look away. He almost —almost—doesn’t feel embarrassed when Sokka catches him during the part about the moon. But he doesn’t seem to have noticed Zuko’s staring, as he only grins and points excitedly toward the screen, and Zuko nods to say he was right, it  _ is  _ beautiful.

Unfortunately, the class largely seems not to have enjoyed it as much as Zuko did, because most of them are half-asleep when the lights come on to signal the show’s end. It takes lots of cajoling and promises of snacks back at school to convince the kids to rise from their seats and trudge back out of the museum toward the bus. 

Sokka walks with them, holding Bumi’s hand and watching in amusement as Zuko patiently directs a group of sleepy children, all still eager to please but too tired to sort out the directions of their own feet, past all of the distracting display cases and colorful exhibitions, and finally gets them back outside. He never shouts at them, even when they wander away or lag behind, and though he sometimes exhibits a kind of anxious energy when a student gets too far ahead, or trips over their own feet, he always takes a breath in, then lets it out, and gently calls the student back, or helps them back up on their feet. Sokka watches almost in wonder as these moments, at the inherent kindness and empathic leadership Zuko exhibits. And he feels warmed by it, not just because he knows Bumi is in good hands with his teacher, but for some other reason, one that strikes Sokka just as Zuko begins loading the children into the bus back to school, asking each of them to thank Dr. Sokka for his exceptional tour. 

“And that’s fifteen,” Sokka says, handing Bumi off to Zuko to round off his headcount.

Zuko smiles gratefully at him as he helps Bumi up the stairs. 

“See you later, buddy!” Sokka calls to his nephew.

Bumi stops halfway up the stairs and turns around. “Are you gonna come to my house after school?” he asks.

“Nah, buddy, I have to go back to work,” Sokka says, jerking his thumb in the direction of the university. “But I’ll see you this weekend, okay?”

“At the party?”

“Yeah, at the baby shower,” Sokka says. 

Bumi nods. He looks between the two men. “Can Teacher Zuko come?”

Zuko scrambles to say something. “Oh, no, Bumi—”

“That’s not a bad idea, Boom—”

Both men stop and laugh nervously when they realize what the other’s said. 

“Well, if you’re free this weekend,” Sokka begins hesitantly.

“Uh, I should be,” Zuko hedges. 

“We could—”

“Teacher Zuko! Rumi hit me!” 

Zuko jerks back to reality. “I should take care of that,” he says apologetically, and starts up the stairs, gently encouraging Bumi to hurry in front of him. He turns around quickly to yell to Sokka, “It was really nice to meet you!”

“Yeah, see you around!” Sokka calls hopefully, and before Zuko can reply, the bus doors have closed, and the vehicle pulls back away toward school. He makes a beeline for Rumi.

The rest of the day goes smoothly enough, though Zuko finds his thoughts often straying to a certain astrophysicist. But he manages to hand out snacks and teach his lessons in spite of the distraction, and by the time pickup rolls around, he feels he and the class have had a full day. The late afternoon pours in through the open windows as one by one, his students’ caregivers arrive to take them home. Bumi is the last to leave.

The little boy sits on the rug on the floor, eating an extra apple Zuko grabs from the snack closet, when the door opens, and a young woman wearing blue scrubs stretched thin across her swollen belly, with her long hair braided down her back, walks in. 

“I’m  _ so _ sorry I’m late,” Katara says sincerely to Zuko, pulling her bag off of her shoulder. “One of my appointments ran over this morning, and we ended up backed up until literally ten minutes ago.”

“Mom!” Bumi cheers, and he rushes into her arms. 

“Hi, sweetie,” she says, hugging him tightly around her pregnant belly and kissing him on the top of his head. “Did you have fun on your trip with Uncle Sokka today?”

“Yeah,” Bumi says energetically, now pulling back to take another bite of his apple. 

Katara smiles at him and ruffles her hair. “How was it?” she asks Zuko.

“It was great,” he says with a small smile. “I think the kids really liked it. Sokka really knows his stuff.”

Katara rolls her eyes at the mention of her brother, but she seems pleased, too.

“Yeah, Teacher Zuko and Uncle Sokka was talking the entire time,” Bumi says around a mouthful of apple. 

Zuko starts, immediately turning red. 

“Were they?” Katara asks, her eyes narrowing at Zuko as a grin spreads across her face.

“I had a question about Jupiter, but I didn’t wanna inter —inter—” Bumi pauses eating as he tries to sort out the word in his mind.

“Interrupt them?” Katara suggests, her arms now crossed on top of her belly. 

“Yeah,” Bumi says, resuming his chewing.

Katara laughs openly at Zuko’s horribly embarrassed expression. “Okay,” she says, “Bumi, can you grab your stuff for me, please?”

Bumi nods and heads for the backroom where his cubby is. 

Now Katara faces Zuko, a sly smile still on her face. “Look, I don’t know what your situation is,” she begins, “but Sokka interrupted three of my appointments today to call and talk about you. So.” She grabs her back and pulls it open to reach for a pen and paper. “I’m giving you his number.”

Zuko stares at her as she writes out the digits and hands the paper to him. 

“If you want to,” she says warmly, putting the pen and paper back in her bag, “call him and take him out somewhere. He needs someone to get him out of that stupid lab.” She reaches out to lay a hand gently on his arm, her expression turning excited. “Or, even better, we’re having the baby shower this weekend. You can come with Sokka! Aang’s been trying to invite you all week anyway.”

Zuko looks down at the paper, slightly dazed, his cheeks still pink. “Really?” he asks, not sure of what else to say.

“Of course,” Katara says. “We’d love it if you came.” She looks at him expectantly.

Zuko nods. “Okay,” he says with a small smile. “I’d love to.”

“Great,” Katara says. Bumi comes out of the cubby room looking like a baby turtleduck, his backpack like the shell. “Ready to go?” Katara asks him. “We’d better hurry, Appa needs to be fed.”

Bumi nods. “Bye, Teacher Zuko!”

“See you tomorrow, Bumi,” Zuko says. “And thank you, Katara.”

Katara looks up from guiding Bumi out the door and smiles brightly at him. “My pleasure.” She points toward the paper in his hands. “Call him!” she says one more time, and she and Bumi are gone.

Alone for the first time that day, Zuko takes a minute before packing his own things. He waters the plants in the window sills, wipes the board, and puts away a pack of crayons someone left out during coloring-in time. He doesn’t keep track of the hour as he puts the room back in order, before he starts the walk back to his apartment. But finally, after a slow glance at the cloudless, darkening sky, Zuko pulls out his phone and the piece of paper, and he begins dialing the number. 

  
  
  



	2. Calls to the Clinic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katara tries to get through another day at the Ba Sing Se Women's Health Clinic. Unfortunately, a certain brother of hers can't stop calling her to talk about the young teacher he's just met on a field trip, Zuko.

The Women’s Health Clinic in Ba Sing Se’s Lower Ring is practically bursting with patients when Katara rushes through its doors. She makes her way quickly to the front desk and slips off her jacket to pull on the white lab coat hanging on the rack near the desk. 

“How was the delivery?” asks the receptionist, Joo Dee. 

Katara does her best to put on a smile, but it comes across as incredibly forced. She still isn’t convinced Joo Dee isn’t some spy installed by a government official hoping to defund the only women’s healthcare facility in the Lower Ring, and the suspiciously perky woman makes her uncomfortable even after three months at the clinic.

“I was pretty worried with how early and how quickly she progressed, and we had some minor complications, but in the end Ying got a healthy baby girl,” Katara says, reaching for a stack of files, marked with her name on a post-it, near Joo Dee. “She did a great job.”

“As did you,” Katara hears, and she looks up to find Yugoda, the founder of the clinic and Ba Sing Se’s longest-serving obstetrician and gynecologist as well as Katara’s mentor, walking through the doorway leading to the exam rooms. The older woman hands Joo Dee a file and holds her hand out for the next patient’s records, smiling kindly at Katara. “Shoulder dystocias are never easy. But it sounds like you did a fine job under pressure.”

“I couldn’t have done it without Suki,” Katara says modestly. “But wait, how—?”

“Pakku called before you got in,” Yugoda says innocently. 

Katara sighs. “Somehow he’s always at the hospital when I’m on call, telling me exactly what I’m doing wrong,” she says a little bitterly.

Yugoda tilts her head. “He only had wonderful things to say about you,” she says encouragingly. “I think he’ll just always be a little sad you picked obstetrics over surgery.”

“‘Sad’ doesn’t seem to cover it,” Katara mutters. 

Yugoda smiles at her warmly before flipping open the file in her hands. “Wei?” she calls out into the waiting room. A young woman stands up stiffly in response. “Follow me,” Yugoda says with her usual kindness, and the young patient visibly relaxes as Yugoda leads her past Katara with a little wave and back into one of the examination rooms.

Katara’s eyebrows rise suddenly as a thought occurs to her. “Oh, I just remembered,” she says. She reaches into the front pocket of her scrubs to pull out a polaroid picture and hand it over to Joo Dee. “Another one for the wall.”

A couple hundred similar photos cover one of the walls of the waiting room, showing off all of the babies that have been delivered by members of the clinic’s staff. A picture of Katara’s son, Bumi, is up there, at only a few minutes old. His face scrunches and puckers in the middle of his first cry, hiding his light blue eyes, but his dark hair already sticks out wildly in different directions. Katara always stops to look at it on her way out at the end of each day, and it never fails to make her smile as she compares the photograph to her rambunctious, funny six-year-old at home. Thinking of him now, she wonders briefly whether he’s back at school yet from his field trip.

Joo Dee cradles the photograph of the new baby carefully in her hands, almost as if she were holding a delicate bird instead. “So much hair,” she says appreciatively. She uncaps a thick, black marker. “Name?” 

“Hope,” Katara replies absentmindedly, opening the top file in her hands. She scans the details on the first page for a quick brief on her first patient of the day.

“Done!” Joo Dee chirps, holding up the labeled polaroid for Katara’s appraisal. She beams with that extraordinarily wide smile, and then tilts her head suggestively at the bump of Katara’s own stomach. “How exciting to think we’ll be putting up another picture of yours soon!”

Katara looks up from the file. “Huh?” She follows Joo Dee’s eyes down to her stomach and can’t help giving a small, almost embarrassed smile. “Oh, yeah, I guess so.” 

With a final glance at the file, Katara calls for her first patient, and a friendly-looking, middle-aged woman begins walking toward her. Katara opens her mouth to greet her, but Joo Dee cuts her off. 

“Oh, Katara, how silly of me,” the receptionist says. “I meant to tell you before; your brother called while you were still at the hospital. It seemed urgent. If he calls again, should I put him through?”

Sokka was on Bumi’s field trip, Katara remembers suddenly, and she pauses laying a reassuring hand on her patient’s shoulder to peer back at Joo Dee. “Sokka called?” she asks.

Joo Dee still wears her wide, though now mildly apologetic, smile. “Yes, many times. Should I put him through when he calls back?”

“Yes,” Katara says, now gesturing for her patient to follow her back into the examination room, “please.”

The patient, Sela, has just scooted onto the exam chair and made her intentions clear for receiving an IUD—she’s just had a pregnancy scare, and with two sons, the younger of which, Lee, gives her enough trouble as it is, she is not about to take her chances with potentially having another one—when the phone on the counter of the exam room rings. 

Katara pauses pulling on her rubber gloves. “Do you mind if I take this?” she asks Sela. “I normally wouldn’t, but I’m pretty sure it’s my brother, and I’m worried it could be an emergency.”

Sela nods, and Katara smiles at her gratefully before grabbing the phone and putting it to her ear.

“Sokka?”

“You didn’t tell me he was _hot_!” 

Katara jerks the phone away from her ear, flinching at the sudden shriek that feels like it’s just ripped through her head. She glances at Sela to see whether she has also heard it—she definitely has but is being very polite about it and pretending to read the latest issue of _ShiShang_ magazine—before returning the phone to her ear.

“What? Is everything okay?” 

“No, everything is not okay, and it’s all your fault,” Sokka says from the other end. “You sent me in there _blind_ , with no game plan, no way of knowing I was about to meet the man of my dreams. You’re my sister; how could you do that to me?”

“What are you talking about?” Katara asks, bewildered. 

“The field trip!” she hears Sokka almost yell exasperatedly.

“Oh, my gosh,” she finally says, realization dawning on her. “You mean _Zuko_?”

“Uh, duh,” Sokka deadpans. “Who else?”

Katara groans. “Sokka, I’m with a _patient_.”

“Hold on,” Sokka begins. “I don’t think you heard me. ‘The man of my dreams,’ Katara. Have you seen his eyes? They’re all gold and flecky, like Venus. Or his hair?” He sighs dreamily. “It’s all whooshy. Like—” Katara listens as Sokka apparently imitates Zuko’s hair, letting out several low “whoosh-whoosh-whoosh” sounds she can only assume are accompanied by hand movements.

Katara kneads the crease between her eyebrows. “Sokka,” she says. Her hand lands on the counter. “I literally just came out of a delivery, I have appointments lined up until 3, I’m thirty-four weeks pregnant, and I am with a patient. Do you have any idea how busy I am?”

Sokka pauses. “Not too busy to talk to me?”

“Call me later.”

She hangs up the phone with a satisfying drop into its cradle.

“Sorry about that,” she says, grabbing a new pair of rubber gloves from the box on the counter. She breathes in, and then out, and then turns to face Sela. “So, you’re thinking of an IUD?”

Katara’s next few patients move in and out of the exam room with almost no delays. She completes her pap smears in record time, prescribes antibiotics with a kind of efficiency that both comforts her patient and assures them that a little infection is really no big deal, and even manages to sneak in an extra minute during an ultrasound for a young couple to tearfully celebrate the news that they’re having twins. 

It almost seems like she’ll make up the time she lost from the delivery and Sokka’s phone call.

“Returning patient,” Joo Dee says when Katara comes back to the front desk, handing her the folder. “Jin?”

“Amazing,” Katara says. “This’ll be easy.”

Jin rises from her seat as soon as she’s called, her image dominated by thick hair gathered into a haphazard ponytail and a green wraparound cardigan, and greets Katara with a wide smile before following her back to the examination room. 

“It’s good to see you again, Jin,” Katara asks, closing the door behind them.

“Yeah, you, too,” Jin says warmly, and Katara grins in amusement. People aren’t normally so happy to see their gynecologists.

“How have you been doing?”

Jin plops on the examination chair with a grin. “Great, actually. I’ve been feeling so much more myself since I went off the pill.”

Katara smiles. “That’s amazing! And how are you feeling about your implant?”

“Great, too,” Jin says with a nod. She pulls back her sleeve to lift her arm and start poking and prodding beneath her bicep. “Still in there!” 

Katara laughs. “We’re just doing your yearly wellness check today, right?” she asks, flipping through Jin’s chart. 

“That’s right,”Jin confirms. 

Katara nods and moves toward the door. “Okay, well, you can go ahead and put on the gown next to you, and I’ll knock before I come back in to start the exam. And if there’s any part of the exam you don’t want to do, or if you have any questions, you can just let me know. Does that sound okay?”

“Yeah,” Jin chirps, already sliding off the chair and grabbing the gown, “no problem.”

Katara ducks out into the hall and closes the door behind her, reading over the form Jin’s filled out in the waiting room. She startles when she hears her name. She looks up to find Yugoda standing in front of her, smiling patiently and holding a small package in her hands.

“Hi,” Katara says weakly. She bends over to pick up the file she’s dropped, but Yugoda beats her to it.

“My fault,” Yugoda says. She hands Katara back the file. “Have you eaten today?”

Katara’s had a persistent headache, right at her temples, through her last three appointments, and the cause suddenly becomes very clear. Her stomach yawns in response to Yugoda’s question.

“I had some rice crackers and ginger candies on my way from the hospital,” she replies guiltily.

Yugoda nods. “I thought that might be the case,” she says kindly. She holds out the package, which reveals itself to be a bento box. “I asked Joo Dee to order lunch from the Water Tribe restaurant a couple of blocks away.” She taps the lid of the box now in Katara’s hands. “There’s extra seaweed and marine spinach; we want to make sure you’re getting your omega-threes and folate.”

Katara looks between the box and Yugoda. “I—thank you, Yugoda,” she says in a rush. “How much do I owe you? This is too kind.”

“Don’t worry about it even a minute.” Yugoda squeezes her shoulder. “You give so much of yourself to others, Katara. Someone’s got to look out for you.” Yugoda starts back down the hall toward the waiting room, then stops and calls back over her shoulder, “And I’d never hear the end of it from Kanna if I let her granddaughter starve in my clinic!”

Katara grins at her retreating form and takes a second to enjoy the heavy feeling of the box in her hand before rapping her knuckles on the door and stepping back into the room. Jin sits where she’s supposed to, in the exam chair in her gown, but the room is filled with the shrill ringing of the phone from Katara’s adjoining office. 

Jin smiles when Katara enters. “You might want to check that,” she says. “It’s been going off ever since you left.”

“Oh, no.” Katara dashes into the doorway of her office. The red light blinking on the phone indicates that it is her emergency line; only the hospital and patients with high-risk pregnancies have the number for it. She waves once apologetically to Jin before she walks fully into her office and puts the phone to her ear. “This is Katara,” she says as calmly as possible.

“Finally!”

Katara’s jaw drops. “Oh, my—Sokka!” she says angrily. She lays down the bento box and Jin’s file on her desk. “This is my emergency line for the hospital; where did you get this number?” 

She can practically hear the grin in her brother’s voice as he replies smugly, “Gran Gran had it. I had to call her all the way down in the South Pole to get it. By the way, we seriously need to get her a smartphone. You know how much long distance rates are these days? Let me tell you: _inhumane_.”

“You’re interrupting another one of my appointments,” Katara says. She glances back toward the examination room, but she can’t see Jin from her position near her desk. “What do you need?”

“Hey, you said to call later,” Sokka says. “It’s later.”

“Sokka.”

“Okay, okay, okay,” he accedes in a rush, “I have something very important to ask you.”

“If this is about Zuko—”

“It’s about Zuko,” Sokka interrupts her. “Do you know what he’s into?”

Katara pauses. “Like… his interests?” she ventures. 

She can hear Sokka’s groan from the other end. “Oh, my _La_ , Katara, how did you get through med school?”

“I really should be getting back to my patient,” Katara replies lithely.

“No, no, I’m sorry, okay?” Sokka says in a rush. “Katara?”

“Still here,” she says with a winning grin.

“Okay,” Sokka says warily. “I mean, do you know if he’s into guys?”

“Oh,” Katara says. She opens the lid of the bento box and takes a look at the food. “Is Zuko gay?”

“That’s what I’m asking you!”

“I honestly don’t know,” she answers. She closes the box back up. “Do you think he could be bi, too?”

She hears Sokka groan. “I thought you knew him pretty well at this point!”

“Sokka,” she says, holding back a laugh. “Zuko’s my son’s teacher. If we talk, we’re talking about Bumi. _Not_ his love life.”

Sokka sighs. “You really don’t know?” he tries again.

“You’re better off asking Aang,” Katara replies, brightly this time. “He volunteers so much in the classroom that he’s pretty good friends with Zuko now. I’m sure he—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Sokka says. “I already tried him. His phone is off.”

Katara nods sympathetically. “He’s at a meditation retreat all day,” she explains. “It’s the last one he’ll be able to go on before the baby comes. That’s why I have to pick up Bumi today.”

“What does Aang need a retreat from?”

“Being a stay-at-home dad is a full-time job,” Katara says. There is an edge to her voice that immediately makes Sokka back off.

“Well, thanks anyway,” he sighs. Then, suddenly, with a revelatory tone, he starts, “Wait, you’re picking up Bumi today?”

“Yep,” Katara says, “and if I want to be on time, I should really get back to my patient. Call me later, okay?”

“Wait, Katara—”

“And _not_ on my emergency line,” she adds sternly. 

Katara hangs up the phone and snatches up Jin’s file once again before going back into the exam room, closing her office door behind her. 

“I’m so sorry,” she says to Jin. “Even at 30, my brother still doesn’t seem to know the meaning of the word ‘emergency.’”

Jin laughs. “It’s fine,” she says goodnaturedly. “He seems funny.”

“He certainly thinks he is,” Katara replies. She pulls a pair of rubber gloves out of the box. “We can start with the breast exam, if you’re ready?”

Jin nods and scoots up on the chair. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t help overhearing,” she says lightly, “that you mentioned Zuko?”

Katara pauses pulling on her first glove. “Do you know him?”

“Yeah,” Jin says. “I met him at his uncle’s teashop, back when it was still in the Lower Ring. We went on a date once.”

“Oh,” Katara says, a little disappointed. “So, he’s straight?”

“Zuko?” Jin laughs when Katara nods. “Oh, no, he’s definitely gay. I think his uncle forced him to go.” 

Jin takes a second for reflection. “Or, I don’t know, he might like girls, too. It’s hard to tell when you’re sixteen. But it really didn’t seem that way when we went out that time. Plus, whenever I go to Iroh’s shop he says he wishes Zuko had a boyfriend.” She smiles.

“Huh,” says Katara.

“He’s a little oblivious,” Jin adds in a thoughtful tone. “He needs at least a gentle nudge to notice that somebody likes him.” She shrugs, still smiling, at Katara’s questioning look. “Maybe something to tell your brother.”

“Huh,” Katara says again. She nods and finishes putting on her gloves. “Thanks, Jin.”

After Jin, Katara only has a couple more appointments, and all pass with so little incidence that she takes a second before the last one to turn her phone back on and check her notifications. There’s the usual text from Aang (“Good luck, Sweetie! Another day of bringing life into the world! You’re my hero”), a missed call from her father and a text from Bato (“Will you please remind your father for me, as a doctor, that he’s no longer a 20-year-old and needs to watch his cholesterol”), a couple of emails from patients, including Ying and her husband Than (“Thank you again, Dr. Katara!!!!”), and then a noteworthy twelve missed calls from her brother, as well as his nineteen texts. She smiles and tucks her phone back in the pocket of her white coat before she calls for her last patient.

Luckily for Sokka, the next time he calls is right as Katara’s guiding them back to the waiting room. 

“Sorry, one second,” she says to her patient, and she puts the phone to her ear. “Sokka? Give me two minutes, and I’ll call you right back. I promise.”

Once she’s back in her office, with a pile of administrative work to get through and her lunchbox open in front of her, Katara dials the number and puts her brother on speaker.

“Katara?”

“Hi!” she says brightly, her mouth full of marine spinach. She stops typing her notes into the clinic’s online records. She swallows. “I have some time before I have to go pick up Bumi. Did you still want to talk about Zuko?”

“Yes, please,” Sokka says weakly. 

Katara grins. She clicks her mouse to open another patient’s on file. “I learned something that I think might make you happy,” she begins. 

“Yeah?” Sokka asks, still low.

“I have it on good authority that Zuko’s gay.”

Sokka’s gasp is so loud Katara has to rush to lower the volume on her phone. “ _Is_ he?” 

Katara laughs. “Yeah, it seems so.” She uses her chopsticks to pop more food into her mouth, and then types more notes onto the computer. “What I don’t understand is why you’re calling me about it. Couldn’t you just ask him for his number?”

Sokka sighs. “Something came up,” he says, and Katara nods. “Besides,” he continues, “I’m not so sure he was into me.”

“What?” Katara puts down her chopsticks. “Why not?”

“I don’t know, I was going to invite him to your baby thing this weekend—”

“Baby shower.”

“Whatever. But he didn’t really seem into it, and I thought I was being pretty obvious and flirting a lot, but he didn’t seem to be responding to that, either, so I don’t know, I don’t want to force myself on him or anything,” Sokka says in a steady stream. He sighs again. “Maybe I should cut my losses.”

“Sokka,” Katara says softly, “everyone we know loves you. I find it really hard to believe Zuko didn’t like you, too.”

“Hey, I didn’t say he didn’t _like_ me,” Sokka immediately argues. “Now you’re just putting words in my mouth.”

Katara smiles. “Fine, then; I find it hard to believe that he wasn’t interested in you. Better?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Sokka says, and Katara can hear his mood picking up. “Actually if you see him when you’re picking up Bumi, do you think you could suss it out for me? Maybe put in a good word?”

“Of course,” Katara agrees. She grins. “What about a ‘gentle nudge?’”

“Wait, don’t do anything embarrassing,” Sokka immediately says. Katara can practically see him positioned with his hand on his chin as he thinks. “But you can remind him maybe of my dashing good looks, or, you know, my inspiring intellect, and maybe mention again how hot—”

“Ugh,” Katara gags. “I’m not saying any of that.”

“Please, Katara? You’d be the best sister ever.”

She laughs. “I already am the best sister ever,” she says, glancing at her phone. "Besides, you don’t need me to—oh, shit. What time is it?”

“Uhh,” she hears from Sokka. “2:57?”

“Shit, I’m late.” Katara closes the windows on her computer and puts the lid back on the now empty bento box. “I’ll call you when I get home, okay?” Her finger hovers over the screen of her phone.

“Okay, but don’t do anything embarrassing!” Sokka practically yells.

“No promises,” she laughs, and she hangs up the phone. In record time, she packs up her bag and shuffles together her administrative work to hand off to Joo Dee on her way out of the clinic. She even peels off her white coat for an easy exchange at the coat rack, which is harder now that it’s so much tighter on her. She does a quick sweep of her office just in case she’s missed anything. It’s fairly institutional-looking but for the comfortable armchairs patients sit in for introductory consultations and the many pictures on her desk of Aang and Bumi. Her favorite is the picture from her medical school graduation, where she wears her long coat for the first time, and Aang stares at her adoringly while two-year-old Bumi laughs delightedly between them. 

Katara’s eyes land on a pad of paper and a pen she normally keeps to jot down medication instructions. 

“Just in case,” she says with a grin, and she grabs it, tossing it into her bag as she dashes out of the office and shuts the door behind her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to turn this into a 3-part fic! (as you probably figured out by now) this chapter's a quick introduction to Katara and her life as a badass OB/GYN, but don't worry, the next part will be very Zukka-centric.
> 
> come talk to me on [tumblr](http://koalaotterodae.tumblr.com)!


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